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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25793338">the art of evading one's fate</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/poalimal/pseuds/poalimal'>poalimal</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Overwatch (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A series of near misses, Ableism, Alternate Universe - Magic, Divination, Fic in the Time of Quarantine, Fortune Telling, Gen, M/M, Obsessive Behaviour, Thinly-veiled disguises</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:21:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,528</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25793338</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/poalimal/pseuds/poalimal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A man walks into a fortune-telling shop and says, 'Ow.'</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Reaper | Gabriel Reyes &amp; Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison, Reaper | Gabriel Reyes/Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the art of evading one's fate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Bone throwing is a very old form of divination common in many cultures around the world. Everything I've written about it in this fic should be assumed to be inaccurate.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>When Jack walked into Nearly Nothing Fortunes with his hat in one hand and an old-fashioned suitcase in the other, Gabe saw one thing: a sucker.</p><p>'Excuse me, sir,' Jack said earnestly, 'my name is Jack Morrison, and I was wanting to know if I could get a fortune, please. I am engaged to be married to a woman out in Duren, you see, on account of our fathers knowing each other, and I would like to know if the marriage will go well.'</p><p>Spelled to appear as a very old man, Gabe let out a 'hmm' of profound contemplation - then he told Jack his fees. Jack paid the requested credits fumblingly, with a reassuring lack of guile. He followed Gabe into the back room and sat down across from him at his seeing eye table. He leaned a little forward, eyes roving curiously over the symbols carved into the table's surface. </p><p>From beneath the brim of his heavy hat, Gabe glanced at the man's features a bit more closely. He wasn't ugly, just maybe a bit underslept. His girl from Duren would be pleased, probably, especially if she liked freckles.</p><p>No need to let him know <em>that</em> easy, though.</p><p>'Are you sure you want to know?' Gabe said gruffly. 'You might not like the answer you get.'</p><p>Jack stared at him. 'For what I just paid? You can stand to make it sound pretty.'</p><p>So he wasn't completely wet behind the ears, then. Gabe choked back a laugh. 'Excuse me,' he said quickly, coughing into his fist, 'I have allergies.' He quickly picked up a cup filled with smoke and bones, holding it aloft for heightened visual effect. 'You see these, son? No, no, don't look directly!, you might blind yourself. These are speaking bones - they'll tell me your fortune. I can wrap it in pretty letters, if you like, but the future is the future, and it cannot be changed.'</p><p>Jack sent him a mild smile. 'Do you really believe that?'</p><p>Gabe paused. 'Do I believe what?'</p><p>Jack set his elbows on the table, scooting his seat closer. His eyes were very dark blue, very intense - somehow he didn't seem so harmless anymore. Gabe swallowed. It must be a trick of the smoke or something. </p><p>'Do you really believe the future can't be changed?' said Jack.</p><p>For obvious reasons, Gabe had never really been asked by a customer what he thought of fortune-telling. To ask would imply a distrust in the very service being offered; to answer would imply some kind of understanding of that distrust. </p><p>To be fair, he'd never really gotten the chance to form an opinion on fortune-telling organically. Everytime the local Academy proctors had visited his town, his uncle had made sure to keep him drugged up to the gills, so he'd always tested null. As a result, he never really learned magic properly. He'd certainly never learned to formally parse the archaic and often times contradictory meanings of fortune-telling patterns and symbols, no matter that his great-aunt had left him her shop in her will, and then fucked off to Erideum and faked her death. </p><p>Gabe had had to learn fast how to treat the kind of customers who frequented the shop, never giving too much hope to the hopeless, never giving too much doubt to the hopeful. He'd had to learn how to swindle where he could - hapless tourists like Jack being a rare but helpful demographic for this - just so he could keep a roof over his head and work his way into the black. </p><p>It was hardly honest work, and he didn't exactly feel great about it - but it was his, and he was good enough at it.</p><p>But did he believe in it?</p><p>'I think,' he said slowly, tilting his head, 'sometimes there are multiple paths to the same end. Some things are just inevitable. Like death - no matter what you do, you're going to die one day, aren't you? You can't avoid it. But some things, I think-- even if they are inevitable, they can make you strong. You can better understand the future, and prepare for it if,' here he cleared his throat, 'if people like me help you.'</p><p>Jack stared at him intently as he finished, a small strange smile playing around his lips. 'Hm.' His eyes flicked down to the cup, which Gabe had set down, then back to Gabe again. 'Why don't you go ahead and throw. See what my future holds.'</p><p>Gabe placed the cup up against his right palm, feeling unaccountably nervous with Jack's eyes on him. He was just some nosy country bumpkin who wanted to know the future of a relationship - Gabe had bullshit his way through much more complicated requests. There was nothing different this time around, he was just - he shook the bones up vigorously - he was just getting in his own head.</p><p>He tossed the bones to the table, and read death in their arrangement.</p><p>'Hm,' said Jack, staring down at the bones. 'They say the strength and accuracy of a throw is based on the magical strength and skill of the thrower. Did you know that?'</p><p>'I-I can't read this,' Gabe stammered. He took off his hat, and pushed his chair back, stumbling to his feet. He wouldn't condemn a stranger to death because of his lack of skill, never mind if they were in Duren or sitting right in front of him. 'I'm sorry, I can refer you to someone else, but I can't read this.'</p><p>Jack sent him a long, lazy look. If there had been any doubt in Gabe's mind that he wasn't just some farm boy, it was now erased. </p><p>'Then let me read it for you,' Jack said, leaning forward and staring down at the board. His freckles and northern accent melted away to nothing. 'It says the same thing it's always said since I was born: <em>Gabriel Reyes will be your greatest ally, your greatest enemy, and your greatest love</em>.'</p><p>All the blood drained from Gabe's face. 'Bullshit,' he said faintly, 'the bones don't say names.'</p><p>Jack smiled at him. 'They do if you force them to,' he said. </p><p>Gabe shook his head. You couldn't-- you couldn't force the bones to do anything. That would require an insane amount of power, as well as a pretty hefty death wish.</p><p>'I can see you don't believe me,' said Jack, standing himself. He wrapped a few fingers around Gabe's clammy hand - sticky grey tendrils bled out from his fingertips, climbing up Gabe's arms and spreading all over his body. It was eating his magic!</p><p>Gabe screamed in fright - 'it's alright! it's not hurting you,' Jack said quickly, letting go of him, 'I just wanted to see you without all that makeup on.' Gabe, shaking, realised his spell had been devoured. 'See? Doesn't that feel better? No more strain on your reserves.'</p><p>What reserves? This man was crazy! 'I'm sorry, but there's been some kind of mistake,' Gabe said, trying to catch his breath. 'I think you have the wrong person.'</p><p>Jack's smile faded first from his eyes. 'What would you know about it?' he said, in a very flat kind of voice. 'You don't know what I've given up to find you.' </p><p>'I didn't ask you to give up anything!' Gabe said indignantly. 'I don't even know you!'</p><p>'I know <em>everything</em> about you,' Jack said. 'First you were supposed to move to Oros, where I lived, but then your parents died. Then you were supposed to go to the local Academy in Madarrach, where I transferred, but your uncle drugged you out of the pool. <em>Then</em> you were supposed to get an art internship in Aralune, where I moved, but your great-aunt faked her fucking death to try to keep you away from me.' He took in a wavering breath. 'Every day I was told, <em>have patience, Jack, he'll come to you, whoever he is, he's looking for you, too</em> - and I believed them. And I waited, and I waited, and I waited. But you know what they all said last month?' His eyes were watery now, fixed on Gabe's face. '<em>Maybe we read the bones wrong</em>. After all this <em>shit</em>--' he swept the bones and cup off the table with a clatter '--re-ordering my life just so <em>you</em> could fucking waste my time. And now you look at me like I'm crazy!' He scoffed. 'Look at <em>your</em> fucking life, man. You can't even muster up a counter shield.' He shook his head. 'I must have been crazy, to wait around for a nobody like you.'</p><p>Gabe paused. Wait - what? 'Wait - what?'</p><p>Jack scoffed again, looking at him with nothing so much as contempt. 'No, I'm not waiting anymore. You think a fortune is inevitable? Have a little self-awareness,' he said. 'This is the first and last time you'll ever see me, Gabriel Reyes.'</p><p>With that, Jack walked right out of Gabe's shop and out of his life.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Of course - Jack happened to leave his shitty hat and suitcase behind - which he would surely need, and which Gabe would surely return.</p><p>Whatever it took, to prove that control freak wrong.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Gabe: (waiting desperately for his lunch break) How can I help you today<br/>A literal stranger (aka Jack): Hey have you thought about what a LOSER you are lately<br/>Gabe: :(?? ???? ?? ?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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